WILL YOU PRAY FOR OUR FINANCES? 

     Are you one of those people that seems to have more bills and
creditors than dollars to go around?  If so, you are definitely
not alone!  Misery may love company, however, it does nothing to
get you out of debt and relieve the situation you are in.  So often
I am requested to pray that somehow God will release His abundance
into the disaster we call our checkbook.  Now, I am not against
praying with you concerning these things, but there are certain
pre-requisites necessary to keep us both from wasting our time and
God's patience.

     In finances as well as every area in our life we must not
substitute prayer for obedience to the Scriptures.  God's Word has
quite a lot to say about our finances and its instructions, if
followed, will bless us not only financially, but in every area of
our spiritual walk.  There is nothing like the lack of money to
cause us to reconsider our path and life.  God wants us to be able
to walk that narrow path between you having money and money having
you.  If you follow God's wisdom concerning finances it will not
only set you free from the bondage of greed, but also set into
motion kingdom principles that will allow God to bless you
financially according to His will for you.

     Two very vital questions must be answered at this point: 1.
Are you willing to give Jesus total Lordship of your life?  2. Are
you willing to allow that Lordship to include what you do with your
money?  Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 that "No one can serve two
masters (Lords).  Either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot
serve both God and Money."  How you answer the second question
releases or binds my ability to effectively pray for your financial
situation.  It would be like praying that God would give you more
of another lord.  The only way God can or will bless our financial
condition is for Him to be given control of it and the only way to
give Him control is to, by faith, submit to His will in how you
handle your money as revealed in the Word of God and your heart. 
They will never contradict each other.  If you are willing to
submit to His will in this, not only will you have enough, via
God's provision and promises, but the church and the kingdom would
have enough to be a powerful force in the world.

     Now, let's take a look as some of these revealed principles.
First, you must make sure you are not a thief.  Before you brush
this thought aside please read this closely because it is in more
of us than we realize.  What is a thief?  I would say it is someone
who is controlled by greed to the max.  One who has a disregard for
another's ownership rights and invades their territory and takes
something not theirs.  Paul said that a Christian must not only no
longer be a thief (Eph. 4:28), but he must do more than stop
stealing - he must become a giver.  Jesus said that if we become
a giver, we will also become a receiver.  He said in Luke 6:38,
"Give and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down,
shaken together and running over, will be pouring into your lap. 
For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you again." 
If you feel like you are not a receiver, maybe it's because you are
not a giver.  So what is a giver according to the Word, and what
does this have to do with being a thief?

     The First Principle of Giving: you can't claim what you send
out as a gift until after you pay what you owe.  If you go to a
restaurant and eat, the waitress usually presents you with your
bill.  What if you decided to leave a tip but not pay for the meal? 
Well, that would simply be theft.  Could you expect further meals
from this place?  So, financially, before we can claim to be a
"giver" we must first see if we have paid what we owe.  Here enters
the Law of First Mention.  Biblically, this means that in scripture
when something is revealed we should begin with where it is first
mentioned and see how later revelation expands upon the truth.

     The path here begins with Genesis 2:15-16. Here we see how
God placed Adam in the garden and placed the whole world, including
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil under his control.  This
one tree was reserved for God alone, for His sole use.  The reason
for this didn't matter, only God's command mattered.  Man's
willingness to obey was to be tested.  Will he resist greed and
unjust gain?  Would Adam enjoy all the world and not invade God's
private property?  What if Adam harvested the entire crop of the
tree and then offered God a few, do you think God would call that
giving?  The price of Adam's decision was: 1. He lost all rights
to the Garden - God's abundant provision, and 2. He made it much
more difficult to scratch out a living.  What has this to do with
you? Read on.

     In the post-Eden era, God instituted informal (unwritten) laws
that reflected the same test.  Cain and Abel are seen in Genesis
4:2-6 as again offering or setting apart something to the Lord
which they had control over.  Abel's was the firstborn or the
firstfruits which was acceptable and Cain's was unacceptable
because of sin in the heart.  Friend, if there is sin in your
heart, you can not buy God off with gifts.  Your offerings on
Sunday will not be a blessing to you if you harbor resentment or
bitterness in your heart.  This, however, leaves us to question
just what this portion was, so let's look at the next mention of
this which clarifies the matter.

     In Genesis 14 Abram is returning from a great battle victory
where he recovered what some invading tribes had stolen from the
Euphrates area east of the now Dead Sea.  In verses 17-20 Abram
gave the High Priest of Salem a tithe (10%) of all he gained in
battle.  This is the first explicit illustration of the amount that
was given to the Lord through the priesthood.

     This principle was later formalized when Moses wrote it down
in Exodus 23:14-19.  It was a written guideline of personal
obligation, called again the firstfruits, given at the Feast of
Harvest (harvest is when they reaped from their labor).  This was
much the same as when Abel offered his gift to the Lord.  How much
was considered enough to offer?  Leviticus 27:26,30 tells us that:
1. The firstborn or firstfruits were not to be dedicated to the
Lord because they were already His.  Verse 30 tells us that this
was again the first ten percent of a tithe of all the increase. 
In other words, God said that you have not given Him anything until
you have paid what you owed.  To the Israelite, the tithe was the
rent they owed to dwell in the land of Canaan, just as not eating
of the tree was the rent Adam owed to dwell in the Garden of Eden. 
When the rent stops, the adversary is more than happy to push for
eviction and the one who is delinquent has no legal ground to
appeal to the Judge.  The first ten percent of everything the
Israelite received was God's private property and to keep it from
Him was theft!

     Next, in Deuteronomy 18:1-8 the Word reveals that the use of
the firstfruits was for the support of the priesthood.  It was
God's means of supplying the needs of those who He has called to
full time ministry.  It taught the priests to depend on the Lord
and the people to step out in faith and do the same.  When Israel
failed to obey, God raised up a stinging word in Malachi 3:8-12. 
He told them that failure to pay tithes and give offerings was, in
fact, robing God.  He said that if they would bring the "whole
tithe into the storehouse,...(He) would throw open the floodgates
of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room
enough for it."

      Even though the New Testament does not teach tithing, we are 
taught in Galatians 3:24-25 that the law was our "schoolmaster" or 
"tutor" as used in the later translations, and so the basic 
principles put across by these Old Testament examples also apply to 
us today. We are simply stewards, taking care of God's possesions.
Some New Testament principles for giving are found in 2 Corinthians
chapters 8 & 9: It is as a grace (8:1-8). Note the expressions 
"affliction","joy","poverty","liberality","beyond their power", etc.
Obviously, the New Testament deals in maximums, not minimums, as is
tithing.  We have fellowship with the Lord and His work in giving (v. 4)
It is a proof of one's love. (8:8-9) It is a means of providing for 
equality (8:13-15) It can be purposed beforetime if in the best 
interest of the work (9:1-5) If you are uncertain how much you 
give, then take a lesson from the scoolmaster.

     For thousands of years, giving was the way God used to
support the work of the ministry and to test the hearts of those
who claim to be "his people."  You can talk about a life of faith,
but faith must be put to work to be effective.  God has put all you
have at your disposal, but He still claims a portion of it as His
own.  The question is, will you do as Adam or Abraham?  As Abel or
Cain?  You can not claim to have given God anything until you have
first paid what you owe.  If you do not pay what you owe, you are
a thief! 

     Look at it like this, what if you gave me full rights just to
walk into your house anytime, day or night, and later began to
discover that every time you bought a box of eggs and put them
away, all but two would be gone in the morning.  Then one morning
you got up and caught me leaving the house with your box of eggs. 


What would be your response if after you accused me of stealing
your eggs I said, "Why are you so angry, I gave you a couple every
time I took them!"?  Yet, isn't that what happens every time we
"give an offering" to God while all the while we steal what is His?

     Biblically, you can not claim to have given God anything until
you have paid what you owe.  If you will pay what is owed, He
promised to rebuke the devourer from your crops.  If you begin to
give, sacraficially and from your heart,  He said "It will be given 
to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running 
over, will be pouring into your lap.  For with the measure you use, 
it will be measured unto you again."  If you feel like you are not a
receiver, maybe it's because you are not a giver.

     When you are facing financial stress as a Christian, God is
able to move with a powerful arm to set you free.  If you are a
giver, you can become a receiver and our prayers will have a
powerful effect.  If you are a thief, our prayers will be in vain. 
Now before you discount what I have shared here, I invite you to
take the Malachi challenge, "Test me in this and see...".  Do you
really dare to trust God?  What better way to find out than to step
out in faith.  You can increase your stewardship ability with a
computer analysis of your budget.

     Friend, we can not serve God and money.  Giving is the only
way to break the back of greed.  My wife and I have been tithing
(plus much more) for 15 years now, through thick and thin, and it
can get thin.  God has always proved faithful, even when I was laid
off my job at the factory.  We didn't have much money but we still
ate steak.  Yes this is the opposite of the way the world does it,
but it is God's way and it works.  Try it this Sunday!